Epistemic freedom and education

First of all, I define the concept of epistemic freedom in the light of the changing nature of educational practice that prioritise over-prescriptive conceptions of learning. I defend the ‘reality’ of this freedom against possible determinist-related criticisms. I do this by stressing the concept of agency as characterised by ‘becoming’. I also discuss briefly some of the technical literature on the subject. I then move on to discuss Gramsci’s concept of hegemony and Foucault’s idea of ‘productive power’: I argue for the need of a counter-narrative of freedom that takes the form of a genealogy. Finally I discuss in more detail the nature of epistemic freedom and briefly discuss the ethical implications of the concept

William Bill Hooks, Interviewed by Edith Gordon

William Hooks, a publisher and author of children\u27s books, is interviewed here in 1975 by Edith Lisolette Gordon who was conducting oral histories that would inform her doctoral dissertation on the history of progressive education at Bank Street. Hooks, who grew up in North Carolina, joined the Bank Street Research Division in 1958, simultaneously staging opera workshops at Brooklyn College and doing freelance dancing and writing. He discusses moving to the Bank Street Publications Division in the early 1960s and working on the Early Childhood Discovery Materials with Irma Black, the process of publishing an ethnically integrated series and creating audiovisual materials for children, and more. From the Edith Lisolette Gordon Papers, Series C, Box 5, Bank Street College Archives, New York, NY.https://educate.bankstreet.edu/oralhistories/1007/thumbnail.jp

Democracy : A Project by Group Material

Identifying four areas of crisis in democracy in the U.S.A. (education, electoral politics, cultural participation and AIDS), Group Material employs exhibitions comprised of over 160 artists' works and the collaborative processes of roundtable discussions and townmeetings to analyse these issues while deconstructing the exclusiveness of cultural practice. Includes documentation of the project and supplementary essays and interviews